New Jersey's Korean community awakens politically

By REBECCA D. O’BRIEN

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

Years from now, when people consider the emergence of the Korean-American community as a political force in New Jersey, it’s likely the past year will be seen as a turning point, with Bergen County leading the way.

Not one, but two official visits to South Korea, including a six-day tour by the county executive. Election ballots printed in Korean. Appointments of Korean-Americans to major local and county positions. Civic initiatives advanced by a growing base of Korean-American political action groups.

Galvanized by concerns about small businesses and schools — and by the defeat of state Supreme Court nominee Philip Kwon of Closter — one of North Jersey’s fastest-growing ethnic minorities is coming of political age, flexing its muscles and demanding a voice in local and state governance.

“It is remarkable how much more active the Korean-American community has been in the political process — even in the last year, it’s grown even more tremendously,” said John Mitchell, the Republican chairman of the county Freeholder Board. “They have moved very swiftly and very assertively to become part of this entire process.”

Elected officials, recognizing an economic and demographic imperative, have been quick to respond.

In the age-old manner of politicians who have made trips to Ireland and Israel, County Executive Kathleen Donovan has just completed a six-day official tour of South Korea, including a visit to “sister city” Dangjin, promoting Bergen County’s business opportunities. Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo and Deputy Mayor Jason Kim — who in 1994 became the county’s first Korean-American school board trustee — are due back today from a conference in Seoul.

Just 1 percent of the state population, Korean-Americans make up 6.3 percent of Bergen County residents, having quadrupled since 1990. They are, on the whole, well-educated, professionally successful and community-oriented.

There are now at least seven Korean-American council members in Bergen County, plus many more on school boards, chambers of commerce and county committees.

Nearly half of the county’s 43,000 eligible Korean-Americans are registered to vote, up from an estimated 2 percent two decades ago, and there is a strong push for election turnout this November. Korean-Americans are giving more money to local and state political campaigns, with contributions from certain communities nearly doubling in recent years. Their civic organizations are hosting local and county candidate debates, registering voters en masse, and lobbying for Korean causes.

In Hackensack on Saturday, county officials announced a memorial for the Korean “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II, will be raised behind the courthouse, alongside memorials to the Holocaust, the Irish Potato Famine and the Armenian genocide. County officials defended a similar monument in Palisades Park when it sparked an international controversy this year.

And the awakening has a soundtrack: “Gangnam Style,” a global pop phenomenon by Korean artist PSY, is poised to become the second Asian-language song ever — and the first in Korean — to top the Billboard charts in America. The first was “Sukiyaki,” in 1963.

“You’ve seen an awakening, of sorts,” said state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, who is half-Korean. In April, the Cedar Grove Republican was among several dozen Korean-American civic and business leaders to meet with Governor Christie at his mansion in Princeton.

“Years ago, Korean-Americans were intimidated,” O’Toole said. “They were bunkered in Korean banks, Korean churches. Now they feel more comfortable interacting with government, more trusting, more mainstream. That’s the way it should be.”

Palisades Park leads way

The rise of Korean-American political engagement can be traced to the streets of Palisades Park, which boasts the highest percentage of Koreans — over half the population — of any municipality in the United States.

Korean grocers, doctors’ offices and restaurants line Broad Avenue, a busy commercial strip in the heart of the borough’s Koreatown, surrounded by well-kept houses and tidy yards.

The state’s Korean-American population has soared, from 38,200 in 1990 to 95,600 last year. Much of that growth has been along Bergen County’s eastern edge, from Alpine to Edgewater.

When Koreans first began to arrive in the area more than 50 years ago, the community was insular. Korean-Americans are still, according to Pew Research Center polls, less likely than other Asian-Americans to speak English fluently, and more likely to express strong connections to their ethnic community and language.

But things are beginning to change.

“We are all Americans and we want to be associated with the mainstream. We want to be involved,” said Andrew Kim of Upper Saddle River, who founded the Korean American Civic Action Committee. “We want to be a part of New Jersey. We are asking for a chance.”

O’Toole says, a generation ago, Koreans in Bergen County were mostly focused on economics.

“Going back to the 1960s and 70s, working seven days a week was their main concern,” O’Toole said. “Now you are seeing a calculation that to improve opportunities for their children, they know they have to get involved.”

Second- and third-generation Korean-Americans, who are less likely to face a significant language barrier, have been particularly engaged. Though far from monolithic, the community has been vocal in concerns for education and small business policies.

Years ago, “many Korean-Americans did not participate in U.S. politics in their community, and couldn’t get any help” for local concerns, said Nuri Han, program director for the Korean American Civic Empowerment in Hackensack. “We had to get our communities involved.”

“Local politics really directly relates to their daily lives here,” Han said. “If we talk about politics, they will say they are too busy. We tell them it’s for their children, education policies, business policies.”

KACE, which hosted a council-candidate debate in Englewood Cliffs on Friday night, runs voter-registration drives on Sundays. The Korean community is predominantly Protestant and observant, and churches are a center of networking.

O’Toole sees the new political engagement as “an extension of that community involvement.”

Mitchell said he visits Korean groups at least twice a month. At a recent event in Palisades Park, he got a standing ovation when he suggested — through a translator — that more Koreans run for office.

“It’s a two-way street,” Mitchell said. “They are coming in and learning a new form of government, there’s an obligation on the part of elected officials to help them understand how government works here and to accept feedback from them as to what they want.”

Political donations rise

While the Korean-American community has been growing in number and influence for several years, it was the Kwon defeat, some say, that sparked the latest surge of political interest.

Kwon would have been the first Asian-American on the court. His rejection in March by a Democratically controlled Senate committee was generally viewed as a rebuke of Christie. But it struck a nerve among the state’s Asian-Americans.

“That was a call to consciousness among the Korean community,” O’Toole said.

As Koreans have become more active in political circles, their money has also been more in evidence in recent Bergen County campaigns.

State election records, for example, show that in the six municipalities that are at least 20 percent Korean — Palisades Park, Leonia, Englewood Cliffs, Ridgefield, Closter and Norwood — people with Korean surnames gave about $132,000 in political contributions from 2009 through 2011, with more than 90 percent going to Democratic organizations. In the prior two decades, Koreans in those communities gave only about $59,000, splitting it evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

But Han, with KACE, said Korean-Americans are not partisan. “If they [candidates] are interested in the Korean-American community, and are aware of our community, we are willing to vote for them,” Han said.

Kim, the Upper Saddle River resident who founded the civic action committee, was among those mobilized in the wake of the Kwon vote. A former president of the Fort Lee Korean-American Association, Kim now works with Asian-American leaders to identify critical issues and potential candidates.

“We are trying to educate Korean-American voters,” Kim said.

Just 10 years ago, Korean-Americans had never won a seat on the Fort Lee school board. Today, four of the nine school board members are Korean.

“But outside those Korean-American concentrated territories, there’s virtually no representation,” Kim said. “A lot of work needs to be done.”

Across the county and state, though, appointments of Korean-Americans are on the rise. Last year, Donovan appointed Jae Y. Kim as a Central Municipal Court judge in Hackensack. Kwon, denied a place on the Supreme Court, was named deputy general counsel for the Port Authority.

Steve Chong, a former reporter for the Korea Daily News based in Palisades Park, serves as a liaison between the county Clerk’s Office and the Korean community. Through outreach to schools, churches and Korean-American civic groups, Chong has been pushing for voter registration and election turnout.

Officials taking a moment of silence at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack on Saturday during a press conference announcing plans to raise a monument to Korean “comfort women” who were forced to become sex slaves by the Japanese before and during World War II. From left, are Councilwomen Jean Bae of Woodcliff Lake and Gloria K. Oh of Englewood Cliffs, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, Freeholders John Mitchell and John Driscoll Jr. and Korean American Republican Committee Chairman Paul Lee.

New Jersey's Korean community awakens politically

By REBECCA D. O’BRIEN

STAFF WRITER |

The Record

Years from now, when people consider the emergence of the Korean-American community as a political force in New Jersey, it’s likely the past year will be seen as a turning point, with Bergen County leading the way.

Not one, but two official visits to South Korea, including a six-day tour by the county executive. Election ballots printed in Korean. Appointments of Korean-Americans to major local and county positions. Civic initiatives advanced by a growing base of Korean-American political action groups.

Galvanized by concerns about small businesses and schools — and by the defeat of state Supreme Court nominee Philip Kwon of Closter — one of North Jersey’s fastest-growing ethnic minorities is coming of political age, flexing its muscles and demanding a voice in local and state governance.

“It is remarkable how much more active the Korean-American community has been in the political process — even in the last year, it’s grown even more tremendously,” said John Mitchell, the Republican chairman of the county Freeholder Board. “They have moved very swiftly and very assertively to become part of this entire process.”

Elected officials, recognizing an economic and demographic imperative, have been quick to respond.

In the age-old manner of politicians who have made trips to Ireland and Israel, County Executive Kathleen Donovan has just completed a six-day official tour of South Korea, including a visit to “sister city” Dangjin, promoting Bergen County’s business opportunities. Palisades Park Mayor James Rotundo and Deputy Mayor Jason Kim — who in 1994 became the county’s first Korean-American school board trustee — are due back today from a conference in Seoul.

Just 1 percent of the state population, Korean-Americans make up 6.3 percent of Bergen County residents, having quadrupled since 1990. They are, on the whole, well-educated, professionally successful and community-oriented.

There are now at least seven Korean-American council members in Bergen County, plus many more on school boards, chambers of commerce and county committees.

Nearly half of the county’s 43,000 eligible Korean-Americans are registered to vote, up from an estimated 2 percent two decades ago, and there is a strong push for election turnout this November. Korean-Americans are giving more money to local and state political campaigns, with contributions from certain communities nearly doubling in recent years. Their civic organizations are hosting local and county candidate debates, registering voters en masse, and lobbying for Korean causes.

In Hackensack on Saturday, county officials announced a memorial for the Korean “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II, will be raised behind the courthouse, alongside memorials to the Holocaust, the Irish Potato Famine and the Armenian genocide. County officials defended a similar monument in Palisades Park when it sparked an international controversy this year.

And the awakening has a soundtrack: “Gangnam Style,” a global pop phenomenon by Korean artist PSY, is poised to become the second Asian-language song ever — and the first in Korean — to top the Billboard charts in America. The first was “Sukiyaki,” in 1963.

“You’ve seen an awakening, of sorts,” said state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, who is half-Korean. In April, the Cedar Grove Republican was among several dozen Korean-American civic and business leaders to meet with Governor Christie at his mansion in Princeton.

“Years ago, Korean-Americans were intimidated,” O’Toole said. “They were bunkered in Korean banks, Korean churches. Now they feel more comfortable interacting with government, more trusting, more mainstream. That’s the way it should be.”

Palisades Park leads way

The rise of Korean-American political engagement can be traced to the streets of Palisades Park, which boasts the highest percentage of Koreans — over half the population — of any municipality in the United States.

Korean grocers, doctors’ offices and restaurants line Broad Avenue, a busy commercial strip in the heart of the borough’s Koreatown, surrounded by well-kept houses and tidy yards.

The state’s Korean-American population has soared, from 38,200 in 1990 to 95,600 last year. Much of that growth has been along Bergen County’s eastern edge, from Alpine to Edgewater.

When Koreans first began to arrive in the area more than 50 years ago, the community was insular. Korean-Americans are still, according to Pew Research Center polls, less likely than other Asian-Americans to speak English fluently, and more likely to express strong connections to their ethnic community and language.

But things are beginning to change.

“We are all Americans and we want to be associated with the mainstream. We want to be involved,” said Andrew Kim of Upper Saddle River, who founded the Korean American Civic Action Committee. “We want to be a part of New Jersey. We are asking for a chance.”

O’Toole says, a generation ago, Koreans in Bergen County were mostly focused on economics.

“Going back to the 1960s and 70s, working seven days a week was their main concern,” O’Toole said. “Now you are seeing a calculation that to improve opportunities for their children, they know they have to get involved.”

Second- and third-generation Korean-Americans, who are less likely to face a significant language barrier, have been particularly engaged. Though far from monolithic, the community has been vocal in concerns for education and small business policies.

Years ago, “many Korean-Americans did not participate in U.S. politics in their community, and couldn’t get any help” for local concerns, said Nuri Han, program director for the Korean American Civic Empowerment in Hackensack. “We had to get our communities involved.”

“Local politics really directly relates to their daily lives here,” Han said. “If we talk about politics, they will say they are too busy. We tell them it’s for their children, education policies, business policies.”

KACE, which hosted a council-candidate debate in Englewood Cliffs on Friday night, runs voter-registration drives on Sundays. The Korean community is predominantly Protestant and observant, and churches are a center of networking.

O’Toole sees the new political engagement as “an extension of that community involvement.”

Mitchell said he visits Korean groups at least twice a month. At a recent event in Palisades Park, he got a standing ovation when he suggested — through a translator — that more Koreans run for office.

“It’s a two-way street,” Mitchell said. “They are coming in and learning a new form of government, there’s an obligation on the part of elected officials to help them understand how government works here and to accept feedback from them as to what they want.”

Political donations rise

While the Korean-American community has been growing in number and influence for several years, it was the Kwon defeat, some say, that sparked the latest surge of political interest.

Kwon would have been the first Asian-American on the court. His rejection in March by a Democratically controlled Senate committee was generally viewed as a rebuke of Christie. But it struck a nerve among the state’s Asian-Americans.

“That was a call to consciousness among the Korean community,” O’Toole said.

As Koreans have become more active in political circles, their money has also been more in evidence in recent Bergen County campaigns.

State election records, for example, show that in the six municipalities that are at least 20 percent Korean — Palisades Park, Leonia, Englewood Cliffs, Ridgefield, Closter and Norwood — people with Korean surnames gave about $132,000 in political contributions from 2009 through 2011, with more than 90 percent going to Democratic organizations. In the prior two decades, Koreans in those communities gave only about $59,000, splitting it evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

But Han, with KACE, said Korean-Americans are not partisan. “If they [candidates] are interested in the Korean-American community, and are aware of our community, we are willing to vote for them,” Han said.

Kim, the Upper Saddle River resident who founded the civic action committee, was among those mobilized in the wake of the Kwon vote. A former president of the Fort Lee Korean-American Association, Kim now works with Asian-American leaders to identify critical issues and potential candidates.

“We are trying to educate Korean-American voters,” Kim said.

Just 10 years ago, Korean-Americans had never won a seat on the Fort Lee school board. Today, four of the nine school board members are Korean.

“But outside those Korean-American concentrated territories, there’s virtually no representation,” Kim said. “A lot of work needs to be done.”

Across the county and state, though, appointments of Korean-Americans are on the rise. Last year, Donovan appointed Jae Y. Kim as a Central Municipal Court judge in Hackensack. Kwon, denied a place on the Supreme Court, was named deputy general counsel for the Port Authority.

Steve Chong, a former reporter for the Korea Daily News based in Palisades Park, serves as a liaison between the county Clerk’s Office and the Korean community. Through outreach to schools, churches and Korean-American civic groups, Chong has been pushing for voter registration and election turnout.